AF HOA tells dog walkers to take waste home with them

Ahwatukee Board of Management and dog waste

Several pet waste collections bins like this one at 40th Street and Ahwatukee Drive in central Ahwatukee Foothills are due to be removed. The Ahwatukee Board of Management is asking dog owners to take their dogs

The Ahwatukee Board of Management is telling dog owners in
central Ahwatukee Foothills that pet waste collection bins soon
will be removed, and they'll need to take their pooch's poop home
with them.

"We're going to try to convince people to take it home and put
it in their trashcan," said Robert Blakesly, Ahwatukee Board of
Management general manager. "Our dump site doesn't want animal
waste anymore."

At its monthly meeting last week, the board agreed to remove about
a half-dozen garbage cans meant to collect pet waste in an area
from 36th Street to 40th Street, and from Ahwatukee to Knox drives.
The board serves as a homeowners association for about 5,100 homes
in central Ahwatukee, Blakesly said.

The plastic bag dispensers that accompany the waste bins will
remain available for public use.

The board plans to put up signs advising local dog walkers to
continue picking up their dogs' waste, but to throw it away in
their own garbage cans, he said.

Blakesly said Waste Management's Lone Butte trash facility, on
Kyrene Road south of Loop 202 in Chandler, won't accept animal
waste, and the bins fill up weekly, he said.

"This one is really convenient for us as far as length of travel,"
Blakesly said of the dump. "We'd be spending a huge amount of time
to haul the stuff away."

Mark Snedecor, Waste Management's director of post-collection
operations, said the Lone Butte facility accepts commercial and
landscaping waste. The company has another facility at 40th Street
and University Drive in Tempe that would accept pet waste, he
said.